Re:Genetic testing is an inexact science with real consequences
by endorphone on Friday December 20, 2019 @06:55PM
(#21848461)
More than that, Sicily was a Muslim emirate for hundreds of years! The darker skin prevalent in Southern Italy is the result of that history, with the Moors conquering and occupying it for centuries.
When 23andme makes a guess about ancestry it is guessing where a set of people were at some arbitrary point in the past, otherwise everyone would simply be "Africa - 100%". This is clearly very inexact and is a novelty more than anything. And in this case enough of those Moors lived in the Middle East so it got categorized so. If anything this should be illuminating to her about notions of race and groupism (e.g. "No, I'm Italian!")
The ads play into this, of course, with the people in the ads suddenly embracing a different self-identity based upon the results. Which is just sad.
Italy is close to the Middle East on my map.
http://redd.it/77bj7a
> Middle Eastern does not refer to "Arab", but rather, is a catch-all term for Eastern Mediterranean, including the Caucasian populations, pre-Arab Levantine populations , and other West Asian populations.
> TL;DR- Ancestry that is Italian, Balkan, or Middle Eastern may utlimately come from the non-diversified pool of Sicilian/Crete/EastMed populations and may only reflect Broadly Mediterranean heritage and not ancestry from any one specific location.
> I had made a lot of the Italian portion of my heritage ... majored in Latin in college,
I cannot see how 23AndMe was lowering this person's sense of scientific legitimacy. 23AndMe didn't create this person's bizarre racial proclivities.